A timeline of events in the Book of Mormon, as calculated and estimated by myself in making an in depth study of the dates and times given in the text itself.
Ajax This is Shem, the creator of the timeline. Sorry for the late reply. Not ever sure you will get this. I haven't actually done anything on this sight in a few years, so I didn't see your comment until today. I can't seem to sign in on my original account, so I had to use this one.
If you want to contact me you can e-mail me as [email protected]. Just put "timeline" as the subject so I know it is you.
Wow. This is a monumental project and achievement!!! I'm working on a project and need some timeline/event clarifications. How can I contact you?... Also, I can't find the conversion (and slaughter) of the Anti-Nephi Lehites? Is it placed here somewhere? --Ajax
A note on months and days; We do not know what the Nephite Calendar was. Some may speculate as to which ancient calendar they used; such as the Babylonian or the Jewish, but it could also have been the Mayan, or one that we don't know today. We are told at what points they began to reckon their years from, such as the year of the judges, or the year after the sign was given. But we are not told whether they restarted their calendar according to the day of a given event or simply by the year. As I state in my overview, the dates I give are approximate as we cannot know specifically when each event happened. Even those events that are given specific dates cannot be placed accurately on our calendar. So I have not really worried about months and days in this timeline, unless given events were close enough together that such short time periods were vital to the accuracy of the presentation.
I stumbled onto this timeline, wow! IT. IS. AWESOME! And very well done! My academic-self has one quibble which doesn't mean to detract from this awesome work, but as a fellow date-and-timeline kind of guy allow me to point something out: Dates are given when hovering the mouse use our calendar, e.g. Alma 14:23 provides an exact date when Alma and Amulek are freed from prison: "...and it was on the twelfth day, in the tenth month, in the tenth year of the reign of the judges...". The map has this as 12 Oct 82 BC. It is highly likely the Nephites used the Babylonian calendar where the first month is in the spring, often beginning with the vernal equinox. Alternatively they could have maintained the Jewish calendar where Nisan, the first month, is also in March-April on our calendar. My point is that we really don't know how Nephite months map to our calendar except when the Savior is born and they begin their calendar when the sign was given (3 Nephi 2:8): so the first day of the Nephite new year from that point on would be our April 6. Again, this is beautiful and awesome, well done!
I have been working on the Jaredite dates, using what little is available and data interpolation. I would love to talk. Can I contact you? Are you Seth's brother?
This is Shem, the creator of the timeline. Sorry for the late reply. Not ever sure you will get this. I haven't actually done anything on this sight in a few years, so I didn't see your comment until today. I can't seem to sign in on my original account, so I had to use this one.
If you want to contact me you can e-mail me as [email protected]. Just put "timeline" as the subject so I know it is you.
We are told at what points they began to reckon their years from, such as the year of the judges, or the year after the sign was given. But we are not told whether they restarted their calendar according to the day of a given event or simply by the year.
As I state in my overview, the dates I give are approximate as we cannot know specifically when each event happened. Even those events that are given specific dates cannot be placed accurately on our calendar. So I have not really worried about months and days in this timeline, unless given events were close enough together that such short time periods were vital to the accuracy of the presentation.
Dates are given when hovering the mouse use our calendar, e.g. Alma 14:23 provides an exact date when Alma and Amulek are freed from prison: "...and it was on the twelfth day, in the tenth month, in the tenth year of the reign of the judges...". The map has this as 12 Oct 82 BC.
It is highly likely the Nephites used the Babylonian calendar where the first month is in the spring, often beginning with the vernal equinox. Alternatively they could have maintained the Jewish calendar where Nisan, the first month, is also in March-April on our calendar.
My point is that we really don't know how Nephite months map to our calendar except when the Savior is born and they begin their calendar when the sign was given (3 Nephi 2:8): so the first day of the Nephite new year from that point on would be our April 6.
Again, this is beautiful and awesome, well done!
I have looked at the Jaredite timeline, and can even give somewhat of a general estimate of when various things take place, but it is very limited.
I am working on a timeline of the Bible, however.